The European Union decided to postpone its final decision on the CETA free trade agreement with Canada until next week, Bloomberg reports. A number of member states, chiefly Belgium and Romania, had earlier expressed concerns about CETA. Almost all 28 countries agreed on the deal, with the exception Belgium.

Belgium’s center-right coalition government is in favor of the pact, but the country’s governmental structure means it cannot sign without backing from all five sub-federal administrations representing its regions and linguistic communities.

Slovakian trade minister Peter Ziga is still confident the deal with Canada could still be signed by October 27, during the EU-Canada summit – as was originally planned.

CETA is a proposed free-trade agreement, designed to eliminate 98 percent of the tariffs between Canada and the EU.

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